Melissa: What memorable Christmas traditions do you share with your family?
This will be my first Christmas as a mom and I love the holiday season. I am looking for some ideas of things I can do every year with my daughter to make Christmas a very special and memorable time.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Fort Sill Army Wife
My son is 17 years old and every christmas since he was born we have had a personalized christmas ornament made for him and let him hang it on the tree where ever he wanted too, of course when he was young we had to help him a little hanging it.
here is some things that were special to me when I was young(ha ha,I say that like I’m old)
1. My best Christmas memoire was when both my father and mother seemed happy. And not fake happy. So, if you and your husband or boyfriend or whatever are fighting one of you need to leave. Cause my parents ruined a couple of my Christmases by faking being happy or arguing.
2. Watching Christmas movies! Like Santa Claus, and Santa Claus is Coming to town and ones like that. Like we would pick a night out of the week starting the week the tree goes up or when they start to celebrate. to watch them . But with me being so young she didn’t think it went over that well ,but my mom kept doing it and I am really thankful she did because it created wonderful memories
3. Stringing popcorn. My father done it with me one year .I would hand him the popcorn and he wound string it. Then we went to hang it somewhere. He let me help and it made my day. Like everyone around me heard me talking about it that year.
4. My mom would let me help decorate a Christmas card to my Grandmother and other close family members.
5. My mom one day was having to fix the tree and learned that it was really pretty to lay under the tree and look up. So try that it was really fun and pretty.I love to and I do every year with her and my cousins
6.Creating a countdown. Here is what you do. (what you need is red construction paper along with some green to, tape or staples(glue is a bad ideal) another piece of paper and a maker ,if you want to ribbon also.) Take the construction paper and cut it into strips, tape them together and loop the next one in it. Creating a chain. One for every day left till Christmas. On another piece of paper write “countdown till Christmas 2009″ with the ribbon create a hook or handle if you want to. And every day tear off one loop but let the oldest do it.
7. Having a sleep over kind of thing or a camp out .In the living room with the tree lights on and Christmas movies playing .Eat like homemade cookies and popcorn.Just close family thou.
8. Baking our own cookies decorating them
9. My mom letting me help decorate
10. making Christmas cards to family members
11. Here is one I done With my cousins. I helped them make a special card along with a hand print picture frame. I done that about two years ago with my cousin for her to give to her mother and her mother loves it and has in the dinning room so she can see how much her little baby has grown” by the size of her hand
12. Also making Reindeer food,(I done it when I was little and now I do it with my cousins) all you need is oatmeal and glitter, also a plastic bag. Mix it all together and on Christmas Eve put it out of the reindeer. (Go out and sweep it off and something so when they wake up it’s not there)
13.my mom would buy me a hallmark baby’s ___ Christmas ,now she buys me one that has the year on it and has for years(oh I’m 13 if your wondering)
I hope i helped.Merry early Christmas! I hope you ,your kids and the rest of your family have a wonderful memorable Christmas!! 🙂
Answer by Borny Naw that is so adorable!
well
in my family, my dad puts up the lights sometime in december. its always funny watching him put them up because there so rubbish, but he always does a good job and we still have the same lights since from i was 1 and now im 14. i get always wake up at 5 or 6 and im not alowed to go in my mum and dads room at 6 and not a minute before. but i always wake up earlier and go and sit next to my stocking. theres always a teddy at the top. i just sit there taking in all the christmas spirit. as your daughter is (guessing) only 1, this has gotta be hard, but if you wake up early give her a stocking its so cute, i do that for my sister whos 2
hopefully yours christmases will get better as your daughter gets older
hope i helped xx
Answer by Anonymous BOh, you need to get an “elf on the shelf”. It’s so fun, we started it a couple of years ago when our daughter was just 2. It’s a bendable little pixie elf that you move around the house, so everyday when your child wakes up the elf is somewhere else “watching” to report back to santa whether they have been naughty or nice. It’s cute to watch the kids try to find the elf each day, and it’s fun for mom and dad to put the elf in funny positions or locations! Congratulations on your growing family. Hope you have a wonderful holiday 🙂Answer by Girzie
We go out for lunch on Christmas Eve and then at 5 o’clock we all go to the children’s service at the nearby church. My grandson is now 3 and he loves all the splendour of the church and how the children are part of the service particularly at this time.Answer by Jerry 71
Take a family picture around or near the Christmas tree and as the years past, you and she will enjoy looking at the pictures. Take her to the Christmas service at your church, too.Answer by waqas
What my children enjoyed is helping to decorate the Christmas tree. The re-discovery of favoured ornaments ( however old and unfashionable) and their arrangement as a family is the annual highlight. Obviously a little re-arranging took place after they had gone to bed but they did not notice and they had such a lot of fun. Likewise the making of gingerbread or biscuit figures in the shapes of angels, stars, etc… and the icing of the Christmas cake which HAD to have a pond, trees and little reindeer,and they chose the figures and disposed them. The snack for Father Christmas and the reindeer was also “their” job and they adored finding chocolate “droppings” on the carpet the following morning, until they were disillusioned, but it was interesting to note that the elder ones carefully kept quiet and kept the myth going for the younger ones.
A sixpence piece, a thimble and a ring still get hidden in the Christmas pudding , but I slip them in the children’s portion as I serve out, and they are exchanged for a shiny new pound coin later.
I save small things that I find throughout the year to go in Christmas stockings (which have been knitted and have their name on rather than the huge ready made commercial ones). I wrap each little thing and the children love undoing their little “treasures” and find the surprises in each packet.
We had inherited the family Christmas crib that we set out as they do on the continent with a landscape, a home-made wooden stable and additional characters such as angels, shepherds, sheep, camels etc.. . the children love to set them out The youngest child put the baby in the crib before going to bed on the 24th evening. Sadly the box in which the characters were stored got damaged during a flood and when it was lifted everything crashed and broke, but the children all made new figures out of clay and we still use these figures thirty years later and they are considered essential by the grand-children (“My mummy made this when she was ten…My daddy made this one, etc..”)
We are lucky in that our local vicar has always had a donkey and there is a lovely carol service specially for children on the 24th with live characters and the donkey participating. The flower ladies arrange the church so beautifully with masses of greenery and candles, and there is a beautiful crib that is very realistic. Returning home afterwards the children are treated to a special “tea” with hot drinking chocolate, sausage rolls, special baby and angel shape cookies. I keep some sparklers bought at bonfire night time and we light them afterwards before the children go to bed.
I decorate the banisters with fresh holly and ivy, red ribbons and add sparkle with some red shatter-proof baubles. There is a home made wreath on the front door and small bunch of mistletoe hanging in the hallway near the door under which all in-comers have to pass.
I forgot to mention that from an early age, each child chose one new bauble/ small ornament annually which I bought and we put on the tree. After Christmas, these were stored in their own “treasure box”(an empty metal biscuit tin) and they took them to their own home when they left us and started the same tradition with their children.
We have also kept the tradition of “a stranger” being invited for Christmas lunch. Along the years it has been foreign assistants who had no family, or an honorary granny/ grand-dad (namely a lonely person with no family of their own near them from the neighborhood).
I was very amused when my lovely and very artistic daughter-in-law was told by her six year old that her designer style Christmas tree was “nowhere as pretty” as the tree he had seen at a friend’s which was decorated with all sorts of bits and bats, many of them home made, and definitely not ” Homes and Garden”. She asked if we still had the contents of her husband’s childhood “treasure box”. We did and I handed them over.
Meanwhile the girls have hunted round for fragile blown-glass birds like those which they remember from my mother’s tree, and reminded them of the family Christmases we had when they were small…
It is what you do that will make Christmas memorable, rather than ready made things bought in the shops, and the love you have put into making it a very special occasion that will stay always in your child’s recollections.
Answer by cafferysmumEvery Christmas my mum rings up about the start of December and says the tree is coming down when are you coming..
Since I was a baby, nearly 43 years ago, my mum and I always decorate the tree together with me putting the star on last. I am now a long way from my mum over 300 miles but its so special that i get so excited and go down for the weekend.
My family traidition is every year we are together we buy a special decoration.. Some times its been an expensive one, some times a cheap one depends how we are at that time.. but its bought with love.. a few years ago we moved house and my fatherinlaw thought it was rubbish bags and it was all our ornaments and while we were upset with him for not checking, we just started everything again and we are building up quite a nice collection.
Another tradition is you have to get dressed and have breakfast before opening presents and then the dogs have to be walked so they are all tired and fed and watered.. Kids are allowed to open some presents but must leave at least 5 presents for boxing day and one for christmas day night.. that way the excitement continues over the holidays.
Answer by KimabeeWow! So many great answers – I want an ‘elf on a shelf’!
One of the things my little ones love is calling ‘Chrismas Spirit!’ when we see houses decorated or someone wearing a santa hat, etc. Usually when we’re driving in the car. It gets obnoxious after a while, but they have a blast trying to be the first to spot the spirit and shout it out.
They also love the little advent calendars with chocolates inside – it’s a fun way to count down to Christmas.
Congrats on your little one, and have a Merry (first) Christmas!
Answer by Sweet n Sourmake a gingerbread house.
make a new and different hand made ornament for the tree each year. There are lots of ideas in craft magazines and books at the library, as well as online.
Get a new pair of pajamas, open them on christmas eve, and then drive around town in your pj’s looking at Christmas lights before bed time.
Decorate Christmas cookies with frosting, sprinkles, and other decors.
Go sledding or ice skating.
Make little neighbor gifts, such as a loaf of sweet bread, or a plate of cookies or fudge. Deliver them to all of your neighbors.
My friend always tells the story of the Christmas Pickle, and then has a pickle shaped ornament to hang on the tree.
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